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Lot Essay
Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s 1607 Road to Calvary is an undisputed masterpiece from the artist’s early maturity and one of the finest of all large-scale compositions by the artist still remaining in private hands. Described by Klaus Ertz as ‘von allerbester malerischer Qualität’, this picture is distinguished by its vivid palette and myriad of details, as well as its almost miraculous state of preservation. In 2006, when it last appeared on the art market, the picture achieved notoriety for setting, by a considerable margin, a new record auction price of £5.16 million, thus establishing a new benchmark for the artist, which has since been surpassed.
Brueghel seems to have attached particular importance to the subject of the Road to Calvary early in his career. He signed and dated five treatments in the years between 1599 and 1607, all of which are of especially high quality. This is the largest of the five and the only one still in private ownership after the Nostell Priory version of 1602 was acquired for the National Trust in 2011. The other three are the pictures of 1599 in Florence (Galleria degli Uffzi); that of 1603 in Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten); and that of 1606 formerly in Halle (Staatliche Galerie Moitzburg), destroyed in the Second World War.
One of the reasons Brueghel may have invested so much of his artistic energy in the Road to Calvary at this time was that the design of the composition was his own, rather than a direct derivation from his father. The initial inspiration was no doubt his father Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous treatment of the same subject, painted in 1564 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; fig.1). The two paintings rely on a sweeping diagonal axis, with the procession of figures streaming from left to right, towards the distant hill of Calvary in the upper right corner. However, their two interpretations could not be more different. In Bruegel the Elder’s work, the figure of Christ, although central, is reduced to an almost incidental detail amongst the crowd. By contrast, Brueghel the Younger has brought the figure of Christ into the foreground and made Him not only larger but more central to the design. This important development of the design is further reinforced by a number of smaller changes. In the Vienna painting, Christ is mocked and derided by the soldiers, but here they escort Him quietly. Similarly, Saint Simon Cyrene is no longer shown being forcibly brought to Christ’s aid, but rather helps support the Cross without any intervention. A pilgrim, seated with his back to the spectator in the central foreground, takes the place of a peddler in the Vienna painting. Saint Veronica is also introduced, offering her veil to mop the brow of Christ. Most pointedly of all, across the road from the procession, the younger Brueghel has introduced a shrine, surmounted by a cross, where a woman offers money to a crippled beggar. Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s carefully thought out adaptation of the composition arguably provides a more spiritual context for the subject. In contrast to Breugel the Elder’s overtly pessimistic view of human nature, where Christ’s suffering is mocked or unheeded, his son expresses a sincere and devout sympathy for Christ’s sacrifice, inviting the spectator to contemplate empathetically on the Passion. This more optimistic view of human nature no doubt reflected the rather calmer political climate in early-seventeenth century Antwerp compared to the turbulence of his father’s day.
Brueghel seems to have attached particular importance to the subject of the Road to Calvary early in his career. He signed and dated five treatments in the years between 1599 and 1607, all of which are of especially high quality. This is the largest of the five and the only one still in private ownership after the Nostell Priory version of 1602 was acquired for the National Trust in 2011. The other three are the pictures of 1599 in Florence (Galleria degli Uffzi); that of 1603 in Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten); and that of 1606 formerly in Halle (Staatliche Galerie Moitzburg), destroyed in the Second World War.
One of the reasons Brueghel may have invested so much of his artistic energy in the Road to Calvary at this time was that the design of the composition was his own, rather than a direct derivation from his father. The initial inspiration was no doubt his father Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous treatment of the same subject, painted in 1564 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; fig.1). The two paintings rely on a sweeping diagonal axis, with the procession of figures streaming from left to right, towards the distant hill of Calvary in the upper right corner. However, their two interpretations could not be more different. In Bruegel the Elder’s work, the figure of Christ, although central, is reduced to an almost incidental detail amongst the crowd. By contrast, Brueghel the Younger has brought the figure of Christ into the foreground and made Him not only larger but more central to the design. This important development of the design is further reinforced by a number of smaller changes. In the Vienna painting, Christ is mocked and derided by the soldiers, but here they escort Him quietly. Similarly, Saint Simon Cyrene is no longer shown being forcibly brought to Christ’s aid, but rather helps support the Cross without any intervention. A pilgrim, seated with his back to the spectator in the central foreground, takes the place of a peddler in the Vienna painting. Saint Veronica is also introduced, offering her veil to mop the brow of Christ. Most pointedly of all, across the road from the procession, the younger Brueghel has introduced a shrine, surmounted by a cross, where a woman offers money to a crippled beggar. Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s carefully thought out adaptation of the composition arguably provides a more spiritual context for the subject. In contrast to Breugel the Elder’s overtly pessimistic view of human nature, where Christ’s suffering is mocked or unheeded, his son expresses a sincere and devout sympathy for Christ’s sacrifice, inviting the spectator to contemplate empathetically on the Passion. This more optimistic view of human nature no doubt reflected the rather calmer political climate in early-seventeenth century Antwerp compared to the turbulence of his father’s day.